Aiden Aslin is a British-born resident of Ukraine. Living in Mykolaiv with his fiancé, he joined the Ukrainian marines in 2018 and was called to the frontline ahead of the Russian invasion in February 2022. He was one of over a thousand soldiers who surrendered after the month-long siege at the Mariupol steelworks, whereupon he was singled out for his British passport. His surrender, captivity, treatment and subsequent release received global media attention.

Aiden Aslin

Aiko Bethea is the founder of RARE Coaching &amp; Consulting, a leadership development company that helps aspiring leaders successfully navigate the workplace with more impactful approaches to leadership. She has worked with Fortune 100 companies, research &amp; academic institutes, and global non-profit organisations. Bethea is also Senior Leadership Consultant for the Brené Brown Education &amp; Research Group and was named by Forbes as a leading anti-racism educator. Bethea was a contributing writer in the New York Times bestselling anthology You Are Your Best Thing (2021). Anchored, Aligned, Accountable is her first book.

Aiko Bethea

Ailie Busby

Ailsa McFarlane was born in 1997 in Seattle, Washington, and grew up in Snowdonia in the United Kingdom. After leaving school, she studied veterinary science before dropping out to travel the United States and Europe by road. Highway Blue is her first novel.

Ailsa McFarlane

Aimee Bender is the author of the novels The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, a New York Times bestseller, and An Invisible Sign of My Own; and of the collections The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, Willful Creatures and The Color Master. Her work has been widely anthologised and has been translated into sixteen languages. She lives in Los Angeles.

Aimee Bender

Aimé Césaire (1913-2008) was a Martinican poet and politician who played a leading role in the struggle to liberate the French colonies of Africa and the Caribbean. Renowned for co-founding the Négritude movement, Césaire was a pioneer in surrealist poetry. His achievements as a writer were recognised worldwide with awards including the International Nâzim Hikmet Poetry Award, the Laporte Prize, the Viareggio-Versilia Prize for Literature, and the Grand Prix National de Poésie; in 2002, he was made Commander of the Order of Merit of Cote d'Ivoire. His works include the plays A Tempest (1969) and A Season in the Congo (1966), the searing political essay Discourse on Colonialism (1956), and the long poem Return to My Native Land (1950), dubbed "nothing less than the greatest lyrical monument of this time" (Andre Breton).

Aimé Césaire

Aingeala Flannery

Aingelda Ardizzone

Ainsley Harriott is nothing short of a cookery legend; a pioneer in quick and easy home cooking, he has hosted some of the UK's most popular culinary series. His love of food and people, together with his natural curiosity and accessible recipes, make him a much-loved British TV personality. Recent popular ITV shows include Ainsley's Caribbean Kitchen, Ainsley Mediterranean Cookbook, Ainsley's Food We Love and now Ainsley's Good Mood Food.

Ainsley Harriott

Air Fryer UK

Aishling Morgan

Aisling Bea

Aisling Fitzsimons

Aislinn Hunter is the author of a novel, Stay; a collection of stories, What's Left Us; and two collections of poetry, Into the Early Hours and The Possible Past. The World Before Us is her first book of fiction in twelve years. After travelling to London and Edinburgh over the past few years to study for a PhD, Aislinn Hunter now lives and teaches in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Aislinn Hunter

Aiste Gazdar

Ajahn Sumedho

Ajay Chowdhury, the inaugural winner of the Harvill Secker-Bloody Scotland prize, is a tech entrepreneur and theatre director. His children’s book – Ayesha and the Firefish, was published in 2016 and adapted into a musical which premiered in San Francisco. 
 
 
The Waiter (Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month), was published in 2021, and is the first in his critically-acclaimed crime series about Detective Kamil Rahman, an ex-policeman from Kolkata who has moved to Brick Lane in London. It is being adapted for television by Moonage Pictures.The Cook (Guardian Top Crime Books of the Year) was published in May 2022 to excellent reviews and deals with the issue of homelessness. The third book in the series – The Detective (Sunday Times Top Crime Books of the Year) – is about government surveillance and AI. The Spy (Longlisted Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing), the fourth book, sees Kamil infiltrate a terrorist cell. The Shadow (A Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month) is the latest book in the series.

Ajay Chowdhury

Ajaz Ahmed is the CEO of AKQA, the ideas and innovation company he founded aged 21. AKQA today employs over 1,500 people in 15 offices around the world. In 2014 AKQA won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Innovation. Ajaz co-authored Velocity: The Seven New Laws for a World Gone Digital. For essays and thoughts visit http://www.akqa.com/ajaz.

Ajaz Ahmed

Akasha Moon is a professional Tarot reader, medium and vocational healer. Under her other pen name Kala Trobe, she has published Invoke the Goddess and Invoke the Gods with Llewellyn. She's passionate about her subject and believes that, although it can bring about some serious benefits, magic can be a lot of fun.

Akasha Moon

Akiyuki Nosaka (1930-2015) was a novelist, singer, lyricist and former member of the House of Councillors in Japan. Born in Kamakura, Kanagawa, his memories of living through the Second World War – including the loss of his adoptive father in the 1945 Kobe bombings – served as the inspiration for his most famous short stories. In 1967, he won the Naoki Prize for Grave of the Fireflies and American Hijiki, both based on the Japanese experience of the War. Nosaka also wrote erotic fiction, including The Pornographers (1963), and in later life he continued his career as a newspaper and TV journalist, as well as a politician and chanson singer.

Akiyuki Nosaka

Dr Akong Tulku Rinpoche was an experienced meditation master of the Karma Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. He was co-founder of the Samye Ling Tibetan Centre and supervised many other centres in Europe, Africa and Asia. He formed several humanitarian organisations for the aid of refugees, the distressed and the poor and was advisor to a large number of people, including therapists in the UK and Europe. He died in 2013.

Akong Tulku Rinpoche

Akshi Singh is an associate editor at Parapraxis and deputy editor at Critical Quarterly, and is the editor of a special collection of Critical Quarterly presenting new writing on Marion Milner. She collaborates regularly with the Derek Jarman lab, and writes for the London Review of Books. Singh moved to the UK from India to study for a PhD in psychoanalysis and literature with Jacqueline Rose. She is currently training to be a psychoanalyst at the Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research.

Akshi Singh

Al Ewing

Al Franken

Al Gore

Al Holloway

Al Murray's alter ego, The Pub Landlord, is one of the most recognizable and successful comic creations of the past twenty years, and Murray, who has won numerous awards and accolades, continues to fill arenas and theatres around the world. 
 
He is also the author of many successful books including Watching War Films with My Dad and Command, a sharply entertaining analysis of the key allied military leaders in the Second World War. He is well known for co-hosting the hugely popular Second World War history podcast, We Have Ways of Making You Talk with fellow bestselling military author James Holland. 
 
Arnhem: Black Tuesday is his first history book about a single campaign.

Al Murray

Al Murray is a Perrier Award-winning comic, TV personality and, as 'The Pub Landlord', the author of the bestselling The Pub Landlord's Book of British Common Sense and Think Yourself British. Most recently, he has taken on the leadership of the Free United Kingdom Party (FUKP).

Actor and director Al Pacino is a unique and enduring figure in the world of American stage and film. He grew up in New York City’s South Bronx, attended the School of Performing Art, and studied acting at the Herbert Berghof Studio with Charles Laughton and the Actors Studio with mentor Lee Strasberg. 
 
 
He has been nominated for the Academy Award nine times, for movies including The Godfather, Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico, The Godfather Part II, and The Irishman, and won the Oscar for Best Actor in 1992 for Scent of a Woman. He has been nominated for the Golden Globe Award nineteen times, and won four, and has been nominated for three Tonys and won two. 
 
 
Pacino has been awarded the Kennedy Center Honor, the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award, the National Merit of Arts from President Obama, and the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement in Motion Pictures.

Al Pacino

Al Pittampalli

PublicationStatus

Brand

Format

AgeRange

Series

Imprint

CategoryLabel

Meera Syal

Contains a sneak preview of Meera Syal's brand new novel, THE HOUSE OF HIDDEN MOTHERS 
 
 
There’s no such thing as a happy ending , is there …? 
 
Sunita - perfect housewife - is married to Akash, but is her marriage what it seems? 
 
Chila - warm, loveable - has married with great fanfare the entrepreneur Deepak. But are they really in love? 
 
Tania - beautiful, rebellious - has rejected her traditional upbringing for a top television career. But is she really as tough as she says? 
 
As Tania uncovers a devastating truth, are the three friends about to learn the hardest life lesson of all …? 
 MEERA SYAL, CBE, is one of our most acclaimed actors and writers. She starred in the hit series The Kumars at No. 42 and recently in the BBC film of David Walliams' The Boy in the Dress. She is currently in the latest series of Broadchurch Meera Syal is also known for her sharp, provocative fiction. Her debut novel is called Anita and Me. Life isn't all Ha Ha Hee Hee is her second acclaimed novel. Her brand new novel The House of Hidden Mothers is out now.

Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee

John Boyne

Odran Yates enters Clonliffe Seminary in 1972 after his mother informs him that he has a vocation to the priesthood. He goes in full of ambition and hope, dedicated to his studies and keen to make friends. 
 
Forty years later, Odran’s devotion has been challenged by the revelations that have shattered the Irish people’s faith in the church. He has seen friends stand trial, colleagues jailed, the lives of young parishioners destroyed and has become nervous of venturing out in public for fear of disapproving stares and insulting remarks. 
 
But when a family tragedy opens wounds from his past, he is forced to confront the demons that have raged within a once respected institution and recognise his own complicity in their propagation. 
It has taken John Boyne fifteen years and twelve novels to write about his home country of Ireland but he has done so now in his most powerful novel to date, a novel about blind dogma and moral courage, and about the dark places where the two can meet. At once courageous and intensely personal, A History of Loneliness confirms Boyne as one of the most searching chroniclers of his generation.

A History of Loneliness

from the bestselling author of The Heart’s Invisible Furies

Andrea Busfield

THE ISLAND IS DIVIDED, BUT ONE MAN'S LOVE WILL NEVER BE COMPROMISED... 
 
Cyprus, 1955 - a guerrilla war is raging and four Greek brothers are growing up to the familiar sounds of exploding bombs and sniper fire. 
 
Determined to avenge the death of his elder brother and to win the heart of his beloved Praxi, young Loukis joins a cell of schoolboy terrorists operating in the mountains. But when his cohorts blow themselves up in a freak accident, he returns home in shock, yearning for the warm embrace of his family - and of his sweetheart. 
 
But his adored Praxi is now married to someone else, and playing at her feet is a young toddler...

Aphrodite's War

A dazzling anthology of short stories by some of our most popular and well-loved writers to raise money for Breast Cancer Care: 
 
Diana Appleyard, Charlotte Bingham, Elizabeth Buchan, Mavis Cheek, Tracy Chevalier, Amanda Craig, Edwina Currie, Helen Dunmore, Barbara Erskine, Nicci Gerrard, Maeve Haran, Wendy Holden, Angela Lambert, David Lodge, Val McDermid, Hilary Mantel, Edna O'Brien, Imogen Parker, Sandi Toksvig, Barbara Toner, Joanna Trollope, Lynne Truss, Salley Vickers. It also includes three stories from the winners of the Woman &amp; Home Short Story Competition and a foreword by Jerry Hall. 
 
At least a £1 from every book sold will go to Breast Cancer Care: www.breastcancercare.org.uk

Days Of Wine And Roses

William Nicholson

He has nowhere to go...so he goes there. 
 
An alienated young man can see no meaning in life. He doesn't even see the point of getting out of bed in the morning. To escape from his family he decides to set off on a hitchhiking adventure around Europe, and is picked up by a friendly lorry driver with an unusual interest in philosophy. 
 
The journey takes him through a violent and Kafkaesque nightmare to a destination that changes his life.

The Society Of Others

Tamar Cohen

The Daily Mail bookclub favourite read of 2015 
'It's essential you get your hands on this thriller' Closer 
'A work of near genius' Daily Mail - the best psychological thriller for fans of GIRL ON THE TRAIN and I LET YOU GO 
'Chillingly brilliant thriller' Red Magazine 
'Taut, tense, addictive' Good Housekeeping 
 
Best friends tell you everything; about their kitchen renovation; about their little girl’s schooling. How one of them is leaving the other for a younger model. 
 
Best friends don’t tell lies. They don’t take up residence on your couch for weeks. They don’t call lawyers. They don’t make you choose sides. 
 
Best friends don’t keep secrets about their past. They don't put you in danger. 
 
Best friends don’t always stay best friends. 
 
'Chillingly real psychological drama. I loved it' LISA JEWELL 
'A shocking twist' PAULA DALY 
'A gripping thriller of betrayal and revenge' Essentials magazine Book of the Month

The Broken

Laura Madeleine

At the famous Patisserie Clermont in Paris, 1909, a chance encounter with the owner’s daughter has given one young man a glimpse into a life he never knew existed: of sweet cream and melted chocolate, golden caramel and powdered sugar, of pastry light as air. 
 
But it is not just the art of confectionery that holds him captive, and soon a forbidden love affair begins. 
 
Almost eighty years later, an academic discovers a hidden photograph of her grandfather as a young man with two people she has never seen before. Scrawled on the back of the picture are the words ‘Forgive me’. Unable to resist the mystery behind it, she begins to unravel the story of two star-crossed lovers and one irrevocable betrayal. 
 
'Delightful and delicious: a must read' Nina George, bestselling author of The Little Paris Bookshop 
 
'Mouth-watering and mysterious . . . a compelling read' Leah Fleming, bestselling author of The Girl under the Olive Tree 
 
Take a moment to savour a bittersweet love story that echoes through the decades – perfect for fans of Kate Morton, Santa Montefiore and Victoria Hislop.

The Confectioner's Tale

Susan Barker

THE ACCLAIMED NOVEL BY THE AUTHOR OF OLD SOUL 
A fantastical tale of love, fate and sacrifice told through five lives over a thousand years of history 
 
A New York Times Editors' Choice and Notable Book of the Year. 
Shortlisted for the Kirkus Prize for Fiction 
 
'Reads as China's Midnight's Children. Utterly remarkable' Independent 
'A kaleidoscopically imaginative novel' The New Yorker 
'Multi-layered and masterful' Guardian 
 
I dream of us across the centuries ... 
 
Beijing, 2008, the Olympics are coming, but as taxi driver Wang circles the city's congested streets, he feels barely alive. His daily grind is suddenly interrupted when he finds a letter in the sunshade of his cab. He is being warned: Someone is watching him. Someone who claims to be his soulmate and to have known him for over a thousand years. 
 
Other letters follow, and Wang will re-live astonishing five lives: 
 - to a spirit-bride in the Tang Dynasty; 
 - young slaves during the Mongol invasion; 
 - concubines plotting to kill the emperor; 
- to a kidnapping in the Opium War; 
 - and Red Guards during the Cultural revolution. 
 
As each past life unfolds, Wang feels the watcher. In the shadows. Growing closer ... 
__________________________________ 
 
PRAISE FOR SUSAN BARKER: 
 
'[A] kaleidoscopically imaginative novel...Barker stitches together an unnervingly perceptive portrait of China and of the enduring influence that its past has on the present' THE NEW YORKER 
 
'A thrilling journey through a thousand years of obsession and betrayal, this is the most extraordinary work of imagination you'll read all year' ADAM JOHNSON, Winner of the PULITZER Prize for Fiction 
 
'Erudite, intriguing and compulsively readable, Susan Barker, a born story-teller, has written one of the most remarkable novels of recent years' JOHN BOYNE 
 
'A brilliant, mind-expanding, and wildly original novel' CHRIS CLEAVE 
 
'A hallucinatory ride. Highly recommend' ANNA HOPE

The Incarnations

Stephanie Butland

'An immensely powerful, and ultimately uplifting, debut novel' Katie Fforde 
 
'Heartbreaking, insightful, gripping and beautifully crafted' Jane Wenham Jones 
________ 
 
Dear Mike, I can’t believe that it’s true. You wouldn’t do this to me. You promised. 
 
Elizabeth knows that her husband is kind and good and that he loves her unconditionally. She knows she hasn’t been herself lately but that, even so, they are happy. 
 
But Elizabeth’s world is turned upside down when Mike dies in a tragic drowning accident. Suddenly everything Elizabeth knows about her husband is thrown into doubt. Why would he sacrifice his own life, knowing he’d never see his wife again? And what exactly was he doing at the lake that night? 
 
Elizabeth knows that writing to Mike won’t bring him back, but she needs to talk to him now more than ever . . . 
How much can you ever know about the people you love? 
________ 
 
Originally published in hardback as Surrounded by Water

Letters To My Husband

Leif G W Persson

From the grand master of Scandinavian crime fiction—and one of the best crime writers of our time—a new critically acclaimed novel centered around the unsolved murder of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986. 
 
It's August 2007, and Lars Martin Johansson, chief of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation in Sweden has opened the files on the unsolved murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme. With his retirement quickly closing in, Johansson forms a new group comprised of a few trustworthy detectives who doggedly wade through mountains of paperwork and pursue new leads in a case that has all but gone cold despite the open wound the assassination has left on the consciousness of Swedish society. Yet the closer the group gets to the truth, the more Johansson compromises the greater good for personal gain, becoming a pawn for the private vendetta of a shady political spin doctor. Sharply detailed and boldly plotted, Persson's work lifts the veil on one of history's greatest unsolved crimes in a novel that goes toe-to-toe with the best of true crime books. 
 
Shortlisted for the 2015 Petrona Award and the 2015 CWA International Dagger

Falling Freely, as If in a Dream

(The Story of a Crime 3)

Julie Cohen

‘A brilliantly original story that will resonate loud and clear with anyone who’s ever been knocked sideways by love’ HEAT 
 
When Felicity steps off the train on the way to meet her husband, she is so sure of everything. Where she is heading, what she will eat at the restaurant, the first words her husband will saywhen she arrives, their life together. 
 
Then she catches a scent of perfume in the air. Forgotten emotions rush to the surface, memoriesof another man she loved years ago. 
 
As it happens again and again, Felicity beginsto make decisions that no one can understand. What is happening to her? Is she losing a partof herself, or finding one? 
 
How can she truly know where love lies? 
 
‘Every once in a while a book stops you in your tracks . . . A stunning study of love and life’s regrets that will leave you breathless’ MIRANDA DICKINSON

Where Love Lies

Sara Crowe

'Reads like a cross between I Capture the Castle and Love, Nina, with a pinch of Adrian Mole' The Bookseller 
 
‘We defy you not to love Sue’ Good Housekeeping 
 
'Campari for Breakfast is truly, charmingly splendid' Lucy Robinson 
 
Life is full of terrible things. Ghosts of dead relatives, heartbreak . . . burnt toast. 
 
In 1987, Sue Bowl's world changes for ever. Her mother dies, leaving her feeling like she’s lost a vital part of herself. And then her father shacks up with an awful man-eater called Ivana. 
 
But Sue’s mother always told her to make the most of what she’s got – and what she’s got is a love of writing and some eccentric relatives. So Sue moves to her Aunt Coral’s crumbling ancestral home, where she fully intends to write a book and fall in love . . . and perhaps drink Campari for breakfast 
 
Campari for Breakfast is a heart-warming, eccentric novel that joins the ranks of great British coming-of-age novels such as Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle and Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love.

Campari for Breakfast

Edney Silvestre

Olavo Bettencourt is an important man, a man of spin. With Brazil adjusting to the new idea of democracy, his PR firm holds the balance of power in its hands. Which has also made Olavo very rich, if not very popular. 
 
Loathed by his trophy wife and mired in a web of political corruption that spreads from Sao Paolo to Switzerland, Israel and New York, Olavo is an obvious target for extortion. And what better leverage can there be but the kidnapping of his only son. 
 
Except that the child on his way home from school in Olavo’s armour-plated car, deep into his colouring book as the gang closes in . . . 
 
He’s not Olavo’s son.

Happiness Is Easy

Anna McPartlin

Here is a truth that can’t be escaped: for Mia ‘Rabbit’ Hayes, life is coming to an end . . . 
 
Rabbit Hayes loves her life, ordinary as it is, and the extraordinary people in it. 
 
She loves her spirited daughter, Juliet; her colourful, unruly family; the only man in her big heart, Johnny Faye. 
 
But it turns out the world has other plans for Rabbit, and she’s OK with that. Because she has plans for the world too, and only a handful of days left to make them happen. 
 
Here is a truth that won’t be forgotten: this is a story about laughing through life’s surprises and finding the joy in every moment. 
 
Praise for Anna McPartlin: 
 
'What a beautiful book. I cried and smiled my way through' Jane Green 
 
'I loved the clear, elegant prose, the feisty characters and the sparkling dialogue' Susan Elliot Wright 
 
'A delightful roller-coaster ride of emotion' Sunday Independent 
 
'Buy a packet (or box) of tissues and settle down with this wonderful story' Heat Magazine 
 
The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes is a Richard and Judy recommended read, and a Simon Mayo Book Club pick.

The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes

The unforgettable Richard and Judy Book Club pick

Anna Hope

The International prize-winning bestseller and Simon Mayo bookclub pick 
'Powerful and humane' SADIE JONES, bestselling author of The Snakes 
____________ 
Remembrance Day 1920: A wartime secret connects three women's lives: 
 
Hettie whose wounded brother won't speak. 
 
Evelyn who still grieves for her lost lover. 
 
And Ada, who has never received an official letter about her son's death, and is still waiting for him to come home. 
 
As the mystery that binds them begins to unravel, far away, in the fields of France, the Unknown Soldier embarks on his journey home. The mood of the nation is turning towards the future - but can these three women ever let go of the past? 
___________________ 
Readers' love WAKE by Anna Hope: 
 
'Beautifully, written, compelling, very moving' 4 **** 
'Engrossing and illuminating' 5 ***** 
' If you like a relationships novel with war backdrop, hard to find better' 4 **** 
'An amazing achievment' 5 *****

Wake

A heartrending story of three women and the journey of the Unknown Warrior

Paul Sussman

‘My name is Raphael Ignatius Phoenix and I am a hundred years old – or will be in ten days’ time, in the early hours of January 1st, 2000, when I kill myself…’ 
Raphael Ignatius Phoenix has had enough. Born at the beginning of the 20th century, he is determined to take his own life as the old millennium ends and the new one begins. But before he ends it all, he wants to get his affairs in order and put the record straight. That includes making sense of his own long life – a life that spanned the century. He decides to write it all down and, eschewing the more usual method of pen and paper, begins to record his story on the walls of the isolated castle that is his final home. Beginning with a fateful first adventure with Emily, the childhood friend who would become his constant companion, Raphael remembers the multitude of experiences, the myriad encounters and, of course, the ten murders he committed along the way . . . 
And so begins one man’s wholly unorthodox account of the twentieth century – or certainly his own riotous, often outrageous, somewhat unreliable and undoubtedly singular interpretation of it.

The Final Testimony of Raphael Ignatius Phoenix

clever, captivating, and idiosyncratic. You won’t forget this novel

Joanna Trollope

Family and business, husbands and wives, parents and children. It's always a balancing act... In this emotional and thought-provoking novel, multi-million copy bestselling author Joanna Trollope expertly weaves a study of familial relationships with a lightness of tone and real sense of compassion. Fans of Elizabeth Noble, Erica James and Amanda Prowse will not be disappointed. 
 
'To be relished.' -- The Times 
'Joanna Trollope's evocations of human relationships are, as ever, penetrating and engaging.' -- Daily Express 
'A joy to read' -- ***** Reader review 
'A great read, very engrossing and hard to put down' -- ***** Reader review 
'A real page-turner' -- ***** Reader review 
'Sublime' -- ***** Reader review 
 
******************************************************************************************** 
 
WHEN EVERYTHING YOU'VE WORKED TO ACHIEVE SUDDENLY FEELS PRECARIOUS, YOU'LL DO WHAT IT TAKES TO KEEP IT STABLE... 
 
Four strong women. All working in a family business. But what happens when they begin to want different things? And what about the men - and the children - in their lives? 
 
Susie Moran has always been the breadwinner in her family. Her husband was the one who was there for their three girls. But now he wants something of his past back - the life he had before Susie's career took off, before they had children. And those children don't see their mother's business the way she has always seen it, thereby threatening the balance she has worked so hard to achieve. 
 
And then, amidst the simmering tensions, someone significant from the past, someone almost forgotten, turns up. The problems of the past, the present, and the future all become challenges to the stability of both family and work. Which relationships - if any - will survive?

Balancing Act

an absorbing and authentic novel from one of Britain’s most popular authors

Judy Astley

Let much-loved and ever-popular author Judy Astley gift you an unmissable, hilarious and heart-warming read this Christmas. Perfect for fans of Katie Fforde, Trisha Ashley, Jenny Colgan and Milly Johnson. 
 
'Witty and warm!' - New! 
'A lively laughter-packed riot of a story' - Heat 
'Full of fun and with great characters' -- ***** Reader review 
'Judy gets the story just right for me' -- ***** Reader review 
'Gives you a cosy glow and gets you into the Christmas spirit' -- ***** Reader review 
'A really good Christmas story devoured over a festive week-end' -- ***** Reader review 
******************************************************************************************* 
AT CHRISTMAS, ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN... 
 
Thea's parents decide to host a big family Christmas in a house by the sea... even though they are, in fact, about to split up. And while her sister and brother are both settled, Thea herself is newly single - her boyfriend has ditched her in favour of his pedigree dogs, and Thea can't decide whether or not she minds. 
 
There will be copious food and drink, holly and mistletoe, lots of bracing walks and a wintry barbecue on the beach. If it seems an odd way to celebrate the final break-up of a marriage and the Moving On to new partners, no-one is saying so. But then no-one had anticipated that the new partners might actually turn up to complicate the sleeping arrangements... 
 
As Cornwall experiences the biggest snowstorm in living memory, the festive atmosphere comes under some strain. Will Thea manage to find some happiness for herself? Will the mistletoe work its magic on them all?

It Must Have Been the Mistletoe

the perfect feel-good festive treat for this Christmas

A hilarious, heart-warming read for the Christmas holidays

Described by his creator as 'short, fat and primitive', Evert Bäckström is a rather unique homicide detective but he is undeniably the real deal with it comes to modern policing. 
 
This series is blackly comic, thrillingly compelling and utterly real.

In this second installment of Persson’s trilogy of police procedurals featuring the "small, fat and primitive" Evert Bäckström, the grand master’s most appallingly repulsive (and funniest) character is finally given his fifteen minutes of fame by way of his patented combination of laziness, luck, and an unbelievable sense of timing. 
 
A seemingly ordinary murder puzzles Bäckström, who is struggling with strict orders from his doctor to lead a healthier life. His gut feeling proves him right: within days, his team has another murder linked to the first on their hands, and reports of alleged ties to a Securicor heist gone out of control, killing two. The nation needs a hero, and the newly appointed head of the Västerort police force Anna Holt needs somebody to kill the dragon for her. Who better to heed to the task than Evert Bäckström: self-sufficient, ostentatious, devoid of moral, Hawaii shirt-clad, and, latterly, armed?

He Who Kills the Dragon

Bäckström 2

Louise Douglas

'Your Beautiful Lies crackles with repressed longing and I was desperate for Annie to escape from her hum drum life. It kept me guessing until the last few pages and the explosive ending took my breath away' C.L. Taylor, author of Her Last Holiday 
 __ 
 
 What secrets are you keeping? 
 
 Annie Howarth is living a restless life in a restless town. It's 1984 and for a mining community in South Yorkshire, the strikes mean tensions are running high. Then a murdered girl is found on the moors and the anxiety levels are pushed to a dangerous breaking point. 
 
 Married to the Chief of Police, Annie should feel safe - William can be secretive, though surely whatever he's hiding is for her own good. 
 
 But Annie is keeping her own secrets. Ten years ago the man she loved was ripped from her life in a scandal that still haunts the both of them, and now his return will put her family, her marriage, even her life, at risk. 
 
 The atmospheric and suspenseful novel from the bestselling author of The Secrets Between Us and The House by the Sea, winner of The Jackie Collins Romantic Thriller Award. Perfect for fans of Eve Chase and Lucie Whitehouse. 
 __ 
 
 What readers are saying about Your Beautiful Lies: 
 
 ***** 'A story of love, lies and betrayal that kept me gripped all the way through' 
 ***** 'A must read for anyone who loves a mystery' 
 ***** 'I didn't want to put it down. A wonderful array of characters very well written'

Your Beautiful Lies

From the bestselling author of The Scarlet Dress

The thrilling, unputdownable novel from the Top 10 bestselling author of The Room in the Attic

Alison Mercer

Every broken heart has a history. 
 
Anna hasn't been back to Oxford since her last summer at university. She tries not to think about her time there, or the tightly knit group of friends she once thought would be hers forever. She has almost forgotten the sting of betrayal, the secret she carries around, the last night she spent with them all. 
 
Then a chance meeting on a rainy day in London brings her past tumbling back into her present. . . Can Anna finally face up to the memories of that summer and the people she left behind? 
 
An absorbing, powerful novel of love, friendship and secrets that sweeps you away from the very first page. The perfect read for fans of Lisa Jewell, Liane Moriarty and Jane Fallon.

After I Left You

Pamela Jooste

When Frieda first met Min, with her golden hair and ivory bones, what struck her most was that Min was wearing a pair of African sandals, the sort made out of old car tyres. She was a silent, unhappy girl, dumped on Frieda's exuberant family in Johannesburg for the summer of 1964 so that her mother could go off with her new husband. In a way, Min and Frieda were both outsiders - Min, raised in the bush by her idealistic doctor father, and Frieda, daughter of a poor Jewish saxophone player who lived almost on top of a native neighborhood. The two girls, thrown together - the 'white kaffir' and the poor Jewish girl - formed a strange but loyal friendship, a friendship that was to last even through the terrible years of oppression and betrayal during the time of South Africa under Apartheid.

Frieda And Min

Catherine Ryan Hyde

Fans of Mark Haddon, Mitch Albom and Alice Sebold will love this remarkable, moving story about family and the many forms this can take by Richard & Judy bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde. 
 
'A smashing read and left me feeling so positive about human nature' -- ***** Reader review 
'An absolute joy to read' -- ***** Reader review 
'Beautifully written' -- ***** Reader review 
'Fantastic' -- ***** Reader review 
'Catherine, you've done it again. Another awesome read that will stay with me' -- ***** Reader review 
'A page-turner' -- ***** Reader review 
********************************************************************************************************* 
WHAT IF THE FAMILY YOU NEED ISN'T YOUR OWN? 
 
Fourteen-year-old Angie and her mum are on the brink of homelessness... again. The problem is her little sister, Sophie. Sophie has a form of autism, and a tendency to shriek. Home never seems to last long. 
 
Until they move in with Aunt Vi, across the fence from a huge Great Dane. Sophie falls in love, and begins to imitate the dog's calm nature. The shrieking stops. Everyone relaxes. Until Paul, the dog's grumpy, socially isolated owner, moves away. 
 
Much to Angie's humiliation, her mum thinks they can follow Paul and his dog. Once reunited, despite a huge age gap, Angie and Paul form the closest friendship either has known. But Angie risks everything to help Paul's dream come true, even their friendship and her one chance at a real home - the only thing she's dreamed of since her father was killed. 
 
A place she won't be thrown out of. A place she can feel she belongs.

Where We Belong

a compassionate, poignant and heart-searingly honest novel from bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde

Adam Johnson

* By the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2013 and the EFG/Sunday Times Best Short Story Award 2014 
 
* 'An idiosyncratic and compelling voice' Michiko Kakutani, New York Times 
 
An ATF raid, a moonshot gone wrong, a busload of female cancer victims determined to live life to the fullest - these are some of the compelling themes explored in this funny, sad, brilliantly bizarre debut collection. A lovesick teenage Cajun girl, a gay astrophysicist, a teenage sniper on Los Angeles police payroll, a post apocalyptic bulletproof-vest salesman - each seeks connection and meaning in landscapes made uncertain by the voids parents and lovers should fill.

Emporium

Stories

If I close my eyes now, I can still feel her blood on my fingers. If only I had closed my eyes then, or kept my mouth shut, not told anyone about our discovery by the swimming hole, we could have gone back to dreaming about spaceships. 
 
A horrifying discovery by two young boys while playing in a mango plantation marks the end of their childhood. As they finally open their eyes to the adult world, they see a place where storybook heroes don't exist but villains and lies do ...

If I Close My Eyes Now

*The debut novel by the author of THE ORPHAN MASTER'S SON: winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2013 
 
After trashing his cherry '72 Corvette, illegally breaking into an ancient burial site, and snacking on 12,000-year-old popcorn, Hank Hannah finds that he's inadvertently unleashed the apocalypse. Hank, a professor of anthropology back in the days when there were still co-eds to ogle and now one of only twelve humans still alive on earth, decides to record the last days of human civilization for whomever - or whatever - might replace us.

Parasites Like Us

Let much-loved and ever-popular author Judy Astley sweep you away to magical Cornwall in this lively, laughter-packed and heart-warming read - a return to the setting of her fantastically successful first novel, Just for the Summer. Perfect for fans of Trisha Ashley, Jenny Colgan and Milly Johnson. 
 
'A light-hearted, romantic and escapist read' - Good Housekeeping 
'Heart-tripping surprises lie ahead in this mix of fun and frolics' - Peterborough Telegraph 
'If you love Cornwall you have to read this and if you are a Judy Astley fan this is a must!' -- ***** Reader review 
'Lovely, amazing and relatable' -- ***** Reader review 
'A delightful read' -- ***** Reader review 
'I cannot recommend this book highly enough' -- ***** Reader review 
*********************************************************************************** 
A RETURN TO AN IDYLLIC CORNISH HOLIDAY HOME - WILL EVERYTHING HAVE CHANGED? 
 
20 years ago, Miranda, then sixteen, holidayed in Cornwall and her life changed forever. 
 
Now she's back again - with her mother Clare and the ashes of her stepfather Jack, whose wish it was to be scattered on the sea overlooked by their one-time holiday home. 
 
 The picturesque cove seems just the same as ever, but the people are different - more smart incomers, fewer locals, more luxury yachts in the harbour... 
 
Will Miranda and Clare be able find some familiar faces, and what emotions will this trip down memory lane back bring to the surface?

In the Summertime

a gloriously funny novel that will sweep you away.  The perfect dose of escapism

Mr &amp; Mrs Max Irving request the company of: 
 
Mrs Fran Friedman, mourning her empty nest, the galloping years and a disastrous haircut. 
Mr Saul Friedman, runner of marathons, and increasingly distant husband. 
The two Misses Friedman, Pip and Katy, one pining over the man she can’t have, the other trying to shake off the man she no longer wants. 
 
At the marriage of their son James, forbidden object of troubling desire. For thirty-six hours of secrets and lies, painted-on-smiles and potential ruin. And drinks, plenty of drinks. 
 
There’s nothing like a wedding for stirring up the past. As Fran negotiates her way from Saturday morning to Sunday evening she is forced to confront things she’s long thought buried, and to make decisions about the future that will have far-reaching consequences for them all.

Someone Else's Wedding

After years of watching her best friends Ben and Claire try for a baby, Romily offered to give them the one thing they most wanted. 
 
But Romily wasn't prepared for the overwhelming feelings that have taken hold of her and which threaten to ruin her friendship with Ben and Claire – and even destroy their marriage. 
 
Now there are three friends, two mothers and only one baby, and an impossible decision to make . . .

Dear Thing

Antonio Hill

Young, Free and . . . Dead 
 
Senior staff at Alemany Cosmetics come home with a secret after a team-building course in a remote country house. Now they are committing suicide, one by one. Soon, they may all be dead. Each has received a photo from an anonymous sender showing dogs hanging dead from a tree near the farm. 
 
 Deciphering the personalities of these youthful executives and their power structures, Inspector Salgado has his own ways of making them speak. But Barcelona is hunkering down for an unusually cold spell. Can Salgado break the ice before it's too late?

The Good Suicides

Detective Kamil Rahman

Detective Konrad

Detective Luc Moncrief Series

Dexter Procter

Diary of a Submissive

The adventures of wise-cracking middle school student Greg Heffley who must somehow survive the scariest time of anyone's life: middle school. The hilarious and internationally bestselling Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Diddly Squat

Dino Dad

Dino Racers

Dinosaur Train

Discworld Graphic Novel Universe

The Discworld is undoubtedly Sir Terry Pratchett's most famous creation. A universe teeming with dwarves, trolls, witches, and social and cultural issues that parallel those in our own world, all wrapped up in Pratchett's inimitable comic delivery. This iconic series will make you laugh, then make you think.

Filters

Category

Age

Publication Date

Format

Series

Imprint

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter